#I like. used tiktok and a few other apps but mostly tiktok to keep myself clean

[friskyeee]

pirating sonic boom (ik its kinda...eh but I NEED MINDLESS SILLYNESS RN) to pretend evertthing is okay lol <3 aha i love new hyperfixes everything is fine <3

[sabrecrane]

Where to publish your books

Here we go, I'm on a roll here! So there are two ways to go about getting your books published. One of them is traditional publishing and the other is self-publishing. What's the difference? Well, I'm here to help you decide or at least get a better idea of which route you wanna go down so let's get to it!

Traditional Publishing -- What it is and the ups and downs

Traditional publishing is the most famous option to go for. I'm not too sure on the process completely myself but from what I understand and have researched, you find a publishing house and email them. After a bit of back and forth they either accept your manuscript or deny it. Being rejected is a very common thing in the writing industry so please don't get demotivated as it has happened to many famous authors!

So let's say your manuscript gets accepted. Awesome, that's one problem out the way. The publishing house will work closely with you, designers and editors to get your book out there. They will handle mostly everything although you may have to chip in here and there to promote it and when it is out there you'll obviously have to do book signings and whatnot. Before deciding to go down this route you need to be aware of a few things.

A percentage will be taken out of the profit to pay for the work the publishing house has put into making your book a reality.

Publishing houses have rules. Some are less picky than others. This means that characters may be changed, you may not get a choice when it comes to covers, summaries, etc. So pick your publishing house carefully and remember this is still your work.

Now there is one more thing I want to bring awareness too. I'm not sure how likely this is but I have heard of it happening before, I think from one of my classes? Take this small warning with a grain of salt. If your book is targeted at a specific audience but the publishing houses believe the topics discussed are too dark or too controversial, they may ask you to change it or remove it completely.

In conclusion, traditional publishing IS cheaper and it'll be easier to get your book out BUT are you willing to change some aspects of your book?

Self-Publishing -- What it is and the ups and downs

A method I have decided to go with for now at least. This method is a lot more work, a lot more promoting, a lot more expensive (but also could be cheap, depending on what your plan is) and you will have to edit yourself or hire an editor (which could be expensive). So what's the benefits of going through this route? Well, this I'm able to talk confidently about more.

Let me share with you my plan for going down this route. I am personally using an app called Inkitt and have joined TikTok, this app, and several discord servers to both promote my book and hopefully gain profit from TikTok to hire an editor. I love my characters, my world, everything, and I'd prefer to have complete creative control over it all.

Inkitt is a self-publishing app, small company, similar to Wattpad. They have another app that is called Galatea and they transfer stories from Inkitt to that app so authors can get paid. Both apps are brilliant and you can develop an audience before its moved to Galatea. On Inkitt you can also run experiments for summaries, book covers, etc, to see what your audience prefers. Allow me to share a visual example:

The downside is there's a lot of competition but at the same time that's a plus because, to let the developers of Inkitt know what's gaining traction, they have added a 'collected data' section at the very bottom of the 'Analytics' tab. Once that reaches 100%, your book will be passed over to Galatea and you'll work alongside editors. I believe you also keep all profit but I may be incorrect on that one.

I know I'm rambling a lot about this app but bear with me here because there are so many benefits on this app. While you're still creating on Inkitt you can still earn money through subscribers. On each tier you can add benefits to subscribing such as exclusive artwork, content, etc. You can also lock certain books to specific tiers, give early access to chapters for subscribers, etc.

Now going back to the analytics section of this app. Not only can you see how many people are reading each chapter, but there's also graphs to see binge rate and you can even see countries people are reading from. You can also see if you're hitting the right target audience!

While there are so many benefits to self publishing there are also downsides. The obvious ones being profit, having to promote yourself, edit yourself, and having no one to look over your work to check for any plot holes you have missed. But at the same time this means that you can work with other self publishers and read each other's work, building a small community almost which you wouldn't really get with traditional publishing.

Enough about Inkitt. You could also use Amazon KDP and Wattpad. I haven't used the second one in years but do be aware there are lots of ads which drove me away from the app in the first place. Amazon KDP is great but make sure you have your book covers and stuff ready!

[tarotoftheendless]

Tom Sturridge Imposters... well, really any celeb imposters, but especially TomStu

There are a fuck ton of imposters/catfishers/scammers out there claiming to be the real Tom Sturridge. There are fake accounts on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and even texting apps like Telegram!

And this post is here to help fans navigate the confusing situation of dealing with these fakers. We will help each other weed out and vet these accounts.

I plan to also post pics of known fake accounts as to warn other fans against trusting them. We don't want any of our Tom Sturridge lovers to be hurt out there because they love Tom so much that they really believe that he is talking to them.

But what you need to realize is is this: TOM DOES NOT HAVE ANY SOCIAL MEDIA. Period. He has an old Nokia phone and has said that he does not have access to the internet.

Maybe that is completely true, maybe not, but if he is on social media at all it would not be with his own name and it wouldn't be with his own picture. He is a private man and as far as we know right now, he doesn't have any social media.

Here are a couple sources that are proof of what I am talking about:

This text is from Neil Gaiman himself and it states:

Tom is not on social media. He's not asking anyone for secret private charitable donations. Anyone asking for money is a scammer trying to steal money from other people by fraud.

I am on lots of social media and I get continual messages about fake Neil Gaimans asking people to contribute money to charity or whatever.

It's not Tom. It's not me. It's not ever a celebrity. It just someone hoping to trick you out of money or into something you don't want to do.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Tom Sturridge (@tomsturridgefans)

The text with this Instagram post from @tomsturridgefans states:

Please read. Scam Warning:- Some of you will know that I am a fan of Tom mostly through the theatre. Although I came across him firstly in 'Being Julia' 18 years ago.

I never had been so excited for him when I heard he was to be The Sandman. However, our little fanbase I feared would change forever. Today at Comic Con it became very clear (nothing to do with CC but what I learnt from a new fan).

I started a social media account for Tom only recently to try have a safe space for us to talk and chat and share photos/ artwork. I feared that it would be full of people taking advantage and being a bit crazy in a creepy way. Good crazy is okay!

I even started getting dodgy messages and ignored them. I started getting them on my personal account too, as my photo was an old one with Tom and I. I had to change it (sadly) and the messages stopped. That account has always been private, but you could see my profile photo.

Please understand Tom doesn't do social media. He will not message you or 'agents' pretending they can get you in touch with him. I won't name person, but I learnt they believed it. They paid money for fan card, meet and greets etc. Tom does not do any of this. Please be so careful. Tom or any celebrity will not ask you for money. They have their own, hehe! These are people scamming you and even cat fishing you.

Impersonating someone is illegal. Let me know and I can help report and post on here to warn you to avoid. Please keep safe.

************************************************************************

Please take note of some common things to look out for when wondering if an account is real or an imposter:

They have not been an account for very long. Especially if they were established right after The Sandman first came out.

The location that they are based out of. Some accounts you can check to see if they have a country of origin and if it is a weird location, like Nigeria as many of them are, then it is a scam.

How many times the account has changed their name. Yes, some official accounts have changed their name many times, like I have had to do a few times when I myself had a stalker but I digress. If it looks weird and they have changed their name more than once, it is probably a scam.

Now to the meat of it: If they refuse to not do anything except text you, they are a scammer/fake.

If they say that their team/management has control over all their devices and won't let them call or video chat or even send pictures, they are a fake.

If they say that they can give you info to contact their team/management about becoming a "true fan", and that management then quotes you any amount of money to be able to finally get in full contact with Tom, they are a fake.

That being said, "Fan Cards", "Fan Codes" and anything of that nature that they say is needed to get into full contact with Tom is a scam.

If they, the fake Tom/celeb or the "team/management" asks for private information like bank info or address or anything of that nature, that is a scam.

If the fake gets mad at you for being wary or scared or you simply questioning him about his own validity, then that is a scammer. Tom is almost 40 years old, he is above getting mad at people on the internet like that, considering he doesn't have a social media at all in the first place. But those scammers are trying to prey on your "please love me" sensibilities when it comes to Tom and they are trying to shame you into feeling bad for asking questions and not blindingly believing them. If they get mad at questions, they are a scam.

That being said, yeah, if they get mad at you asking screening questions or really just asking them questions about themselves, then they are a scam. They likely don't even fucking know as there is rarely someone that has done their research on Tom that is also am imposter.

Though, there are a couple of good imposters out there that have done their research, so just because they can answer all the Tom questions correctly doesn't mean they are Tom. Remember all the other signs that I have listed. Some of these scammers are good enough to have done their research and yet all the other signs will be there. Stay vigilant!

Also, though I feel weird about mentioning this, but broken English is also a sign. I know not everyone's first language is English, but Tom's is. Tom may be awkward sometimes but he is more articulate than not. I would think that if he is gonna text at all he is going to make sure it is written well and understood clearly. Tom is a well-read, well-educated articulate almost 40 year old Englishman, he would speak and text English very well.

Anyone starting out their text with "Hello Lovely fan" or anything like that is very much an imposter. Also if you get asked how long you have been a fan by these accounts claiming to be Tom, they are likely a scammer.

Another thing to look out for is if they are trying to get you to go to a different social media app and or texting/chatting app for a more "private" conversation because their "team"/"management" is watching them, like Google Chat, especially Google Chat, then they are an imposter. Even if they don't mention their team or management and they are just trying to get you off of Instagram, Facebook or TikTok onto a more "private" chat app, then that is a sign of an imposter.

So, if someone claiming to be Tom says that he isn't with Alexa Chung and or that their relationship is a publicity stunt, don't believe them. They are likely not actually Tom and are trying to get you comfortable around them.

We don't know for sure if their relationship is fake or real, but for now it should be taken as real considering even Sienna recently went on Vogue and talked about Alexa essentially being a part of the family now. Yes, there has been rumors for years that Alexa is a professional beard, but those are rumors, and rumors are not true and shouldn't be taken as such.

And anyone who is a fan of Tom's has seen the month of Alexa Chung birthday celebrations content where they kiss and look happy and are with family and friends. Many of those videos are deeply buried as they were intended to be private even though they are on social media. But because they are coming from family and friends socials and not paparazzi, then we should consider those pictures and videos to be true.

Alexa and Tom are happily together and anybody claiming to be Tom Sturridge saying otherwise is likely an imposter.

************************************************************************

I am posting this because I know what it is like to get your hopes up and to be mentally and emotionally drained by these imposters. I know some people that have actually lost thousands of dollars because they really believed they were talking to the real Tom Sturridge. They weren't. Please be careful out there guys.

I will post videos below that show the proof that Tom doesn't have social media of any kind. At least none that the general public will ever get their hands on, so, you have been informed now. Let's help each other stay safe. If you find any imposter accounts out there report and block them.

I will list the Instagram accounts that I know about so far that are imposters that I have blocked. I have also found accounts on Facebook that are imposters too but I have to find them again.

INSTAGRAM IMPOSTERS:

tomsurridge1988

privatetomsturridge420

tomsturridge6

private.tomsturridge02

pvt_tom_surridge4768

pvttomsturridge

sturridge934

realtomsturridge__

tomstrurridge6

tom__sturridge_

sturridge__

official_tom_sturridge

tom.sturridge_private

privately__tom_sturridge56

tom_sturridge__

sturridge360

tomsturridge65

tomsturridge_1

sturridgetom6

tom_sturridge1

tomsturridge4real_

tom.sturridge96

tomsturridge54

officialtom_sturridge

tomsturridgepage

tom_sturridgepvt

These are the ones I know about so far, but if there are more that any of you find, please, like seriously, please, list them here. Let's help each other stay safe out there.

There is of course Facebook accounts and other social media platforms that have imposters of Tom on them, but Instagram seems to be the hotbed for them mostly.

If you know of any accounts or want to add anything, or even share screen shots of your texting conversations with these accounts that proves they are imposters, please do.

[bunchacrunchcake]

I got off the internet, mostly, and it's been great. Here are some reasons.

Social media companies keep you on their sites by showing addictive content. They sometimes trigger fight or flight. They often trigger social anxiety. They are literally modeled after slot machines (low risk, variable reward) You will constantly crave dopamine, never get enough, feel awful, and never know why.

Staring at the ceiling or reading a book isn't hard anymore. It took about a month, but... if I can't figure out something to do for this very second, I just kind of look around until I figure something out. Sometimes it's boring, that's okay. Being bored just isn't the psychic torture it used to be. It's pretty mundane.

I do all my chores. I used to have to block time out to do this or that. Then force myself to stop what I was doing (which was often using multiple apps and websites as well as watching a movie or playing a game,) to go do something incredibly boring. I don't have to combat that level of inertia anymore. If I'm microwaving or cooking something, I just do a few dishes here or there, or do some sweeping for a couple minutes. It all adds up and my house is cleaner and more organized. What I used to do while my food was cooking was scroll through reels until I could break away to keep cooking.

I consume less, but retain more information. Let's be honest, you've gone by probably 100 posts today. What was the last one about? Okay, what about 10 posts ago? I can read half a book in a day if I want to (don't always want to,) because I can just sit down and read. I'm not constantly fighting the urge to go do something more interesting. And I can make up my mind about whether I like it or not, the plot, character development, etc. My attention span is long enough to read 100 pages in the afternoon, go make tea, and mush it all around in my head while the kettle is boiling. I also don't waste my time watching or reading things I don't like. I used to look at youtube and be like "I have to watch something, what am I going to watch?" Now I go, "Is there anything interesting in my feed?" The question is different, and I've learned that often there is not. I used to watch and watch and watch just to fill time. Now that I don't have to, so much less of it is actually interesting. Reels and TikTok are actually painfully boring. They're huge huge dopamine hits, but about 1 in 50 are actually interesting and even less of them really add much to my life. I used to binge watch them for hours.

I worry less about what other people think. Top comments are always someone arguing. Comment replies on reddit and almost every other platform are arguing. If they're not picking apart a thought you casually came up with on an evening off, they're actively throwing hate at you. You might get adoration too. But none of it is really constructive. It doesn't really help you develop your thoughts or grow as a person. Plus, not everyone is going to like what you do or who you are. Part of growth is not trying to avoid negativity, but understanding where it comes from and whether you think it's a legitimate thing to work on or not. Social media just hurls unconstructive negativity at you 24/7. The amount of times I think about whether someone else would like what I'm doing in the current moment is dialed down from a 10/10 to a 1 or 2. Yes it's okay that you were a jerk to the cashier because you were having a bad day. It's not a good thing. Please learn from it and try to figure out how to not do it in the future, but you're not irredeemable. The internet tends to throw the baby out with the bathwater as far as personalities and people go. It's hard to walk around in life trying to be morally perfect when everyone's opinion of what that is is so drastically different.

In short, I am patient, I don't second guess myself, and I'm happy. It didn't happen immediately and it might not to you, but it was my experience and I am not sure I will be a regular social media user any time soon.

[my-daily-life95]

August 26, 2023

It's been a bit since I last made a journaling post on here. I kinda lost motivation to write anything on here and in my physical journal. It's a little sad since I miss it. A few times I pulled up this app or even my journal yet nothing happened. No words would come out. I'm in a journaling slump. Though right now I am writing. It's an improvement.

Anyways a small update on my life. Hurricane Hilary came and went. Where I live there are still road closers from it. I had to work on the Sunday it hit. I have never seen so much rain fall in such a short time. I was scared for that bit. I thought I would have to sleep at work. By 8 pm it calmed down and I decided to go home. I only worked six hours that day but I was anxious. I said fuck work and went home. There was so much water and a few fallen trees from the wind. There were also a lot of cops driving around since the line for 911 was down. I have lived in a desert my whole life and I honestly was scared of the Hurricane.

I wrote a letter to a friend of mine that I have "know" for a few years. We used to send letters pretty often when we were younger. We stopped talking for a few years but they reached out. Now we talk on a regular basis which is nice. I'm too much of a coward to reach out to people and I told them so in the letter. I never met this person face to face before. We met off Wattpad when we were in high school. They live on the other side of the country. We talked about meeting hopefully sometime next year. It will be nice to properly meet them. I hope I can meet them.

I have two job interviews this upcoming Thursday. I'm still looking for a second job. I'm really hoping one of them will hire me. I really do need that extra income. I can't keep relaying on loans. I'm going to do my best! I have to do my best. Show those people that I'm good at what I do! I got this!!

I builded a book shelf for my youngest sister. It was a struggle. Nothing was cooperating with me. I have builded plenty of furniture by myself and this one book shelf frustrated me to the ends of the Earth. Still the book shelf was built and it looks good. I don't know where my sister bought it from since the box was extremely beat up. No instructions but all the parts were there. Oh well.

Ah this is a bit TMI but I have a yeast infection at the moment. Man it's not fun at all. It's the second time I have had one. Luckily this one isn't as severe as the first one. The first one was bad bad. This one is ok just mostly itchy. I know it's due to my poor lifestyle of no exercise and bad eating habits. I just can't seem to motivate myself to do anything at the moment. I literally spend my days off laying in bed watching tiktok, reading the same fanfic over and over, or playing Tears of the Kingdom. How the hell was I able to do a whole workout routine before? I remember I had specific days I worked out and now I can't even get out of bed. Hell, I even used to do one dance a day since I'm always listening to music. I still listen to music but now I just move my head instead of dance. Oh well. I know my happy ass will just randomly start doing it again. It's a cycle I'm pretty sure of it. A terrible cycle for sure.

I think that's it for updates right now. I had today off and like stated before I spent it in bed. My bed really is comfy. I did just wash the sheets. Also the room has been cold recently so it makes me want to get off even less. God, I'm a mess. Anyways here's a picture from the day before Hurricane Hilary hit. It looked apocalyptic to me.

[stubborn-society]

Kam Theory: “everything that’s meant for me will come.”

Photo Credit: Kam Theory

Cheers, I apologize for being absent from my post. I’ve been busy af, then I got sick with covid for the first time. Take it easy on me, would you? 

I’m so excited to be back. Things have been steadily moving along here at Grapefruit HQ. Our house is growing, and given the state of western civilization, I think everyone is more or less happy. I feel booked and blessed. 

As is my style, I am bringing you fresh, new artists to keep your eyes and ears on before anyone else. I’m no paycheck patsy out here lazily sowing seeds for the machine. I’m just one woman, the boss, out here putting her BST in the game every day. Mark my words. This is a threat and a promise.

I’ve waited a long time to get this interview under my belt and it’s finally come to fruition I’m so stoked: 

Another Friend of Grapefruit - this is the lovely and gifted Kam Theory. I’ve put her 2020 single, The Process, on 5 playlists already. Check it out for yourself. 

Hi, Kam Theory! 

Hi! 

How’s it going?

It’s going haha.

First, in your own words, tell us who you are. 

I am an ATL-based artist and producer from Savannah, GA.

I love Atlanta, especially the artists from there. How long have you been making music for this project? Is there a story behind it? 

I’ve kinda always been making music for this project but I just didn’t know what I’d call myself at those earlier stages. I’m always aiming to discover and hone in on what exactly I'm doing and slowly but surely I'm finding my sound and as a result, a name that stuck came about. I don't exactly even recall why I chose it. Partially it was my nickname Kam that my friends started calling me to shorten Kamiah. And Theory I think just resonated with my personality, interests, and the subject matter of my music, haha.

I got my first project name from a joke someone made when I worked in a call center when I was 20 and had it for 15 years, there’s no rhyme or reason! So tell me more about your path as a musician and what got you to where you are now. 

My music journey started as a child, I instantly gravitated toward music. I showed interest in it from my earliest memories. Through elementary school I would bang on any keyboard I could get my hands on, I played violin in 5th grade (but quit sadly haha), and then picked up a guitar at 13. I kinda always had these fleeting moments with being able to learn or play because I didn't actually have an instrument that was mine (or could afford lessons) until my first keyboard and first guitar at 13/14. But from there I taught myself how to play guitar by learning songs I loved and by writing my own songs. Naturally, I wanted to record myself and my own creations, so that bred my love for production. At 14 or 15 I got my first USB mic and MIDI cord to connect my lil casio and begin teaching myself programs like Mixcraft and eventually Ableton Live. I spent many hours just creating and trial and error learning music to get where I am today with it.

That’s cool you started producing songs so early! Kids really didn’t have that kind of access to recording programs and all that comes with that when I was that age but it’s really cool to see. 

We started following each other on TikTok a few months ago; that’s where I discovered you are crazy talented. What made you decide to start promoting your music on TikTok?

Mostly being encouraged by people around me to post my music on the platform, because it can be a great tool for discovery. And it can just be fun! I’m not always as consistent with it as I should be but it’s definitely cool to connect with others as a result of posting.

I notice some artists are very aggressive with their promotion on the app and others prefer to take a much more organic, real-life approach to it and just put their work out there and let it reach who it reaches. What has it been like for you as an artist promoting their music on social media? 

It’s a good tool when I am consistent with it, but sometimes I find it draining if I find myself feeling like I have to create content to be seen or not drowned out by the algorithm. But overall it's helpful when I am intentional about it and just remember that everything that's meant for me will come.

Yeah for sure, it’s stressful to be on there trying to get a song to go viral; I kind of think that ship has sailed anyway (definitely for the better). But it’s such a great tool for connecting with people and building community. Do you use it to connect with other artists or creators on there?

I do find music there occasionally, from specific artists that I might discover down to accounts that actually make lists of artists/or songs to listen to.

Has TikTok been a good platform to build community and find other musicians?

I think it is or can be. Social media overall has the potential to be that. Just depends on who you meet, connect with, and how you plan to move based on that imo!

Totally. Musictok can be a very energizing place, especially now that things have chilled out and it’s not so much like The Hunger Games or something. But some people do still have that energy vampire vibe that’s annoying. Do you enjoy the other music content that you see? Do you think on TikTok the content matters more or the music? 

I do. I love to see artists/musicians play and discover new ones via the algorithm that I potentially wouldn't have otherwise. Usually, it’s the music but also I enjoy how an artist can kind of curate a short-form video to reach a wider audience. A good visual is satisfying too, but especially when it compliments the music that’s already happening!

I’ll be honest, I don’t think anyone has mastered the art of seamlessly merging their content with their music on TikTok yet. But it’s not shade, I guess that doesn’t necessarily have to be the goal. Besides, a lot of artists on TikTok are solo. You also write and play all the instruments, record, and produce everything yourself. How do you feel about that? Is it your preference?

 I think it has its pros and cons like with everything. I like not having to wait on anyone to get things done or made as a result of being solo. But I do miss collaboration when I've gone through a long period of time without it. And it's nice to have a creative control break when working with others because the work is spread out over multiple brains vs just one haha.

Yeah, I used to get weird about collaborating but when you are really vibing with someone it’s really hard to go back to juggling everything yourself. This is sort of a non-sequitur, but how do you feel about competition in the music industry? Do you feel affected by it?

I think competition tends to stem from competing for an opportunity as opposed to competing for the sake of it. Also competing for attention because attention can lead to such opportunities. But there’s more room in this now than ever before because of social media and the internet. So it’s just interesting to witness or experience. I think it can bring out the worst of some personalities tho haha.

ABSOLUTELY. I think if there’s anyone to compete with it’s the stories we tell ourselves that hold us back. 

Lately, there has been a lot of conversation around indie artists maintaining control and ownership over their music and working independently of a label. Do you have any personal thoughts on signing to a label? 

I kind of touched on this in the previous question without even knowing haha. It’s absolutely an important conversation. The industry can be predatory, so I'd say my hope is that every single artist has the ability to decide what works for them. I would hope that everyone makes informed decisions vs hastily made ones that they might regret later on or ones made in the face of deception. In a perfect world, all artists could pursue the career in music they desire without the aid of a label to eventually leech off the fruits of that labor. But on the flip side, that same aid gets you the resources to execute your vision to a higher degree. So it can be subjective. I personally know that I want to maintain ownership and control of my music so I will move accordingly.

I respect that, and I think it means a lot to certain fans these days, too. But as you mentioned, there are a lot of great labels that are run by people with good taste who truly want to help artists, too. I think staying open to the right opportunities always helps the artist. So, what does the end game look like for you right now? What are your most immediate goals? 

Definitely building a platform to get my music heard and connect to more people. And to create more opportunities for myself in music as a result of that, so yes, playing more live shows and finding more collaborators. I really don’t know if I’m seeking a label or ever will be because I would like to keep my autonomy, haha. But as I continue to learn more about the industry and business aspect of music maybe that will change, who knows. I’m kind of going with the flow right now but I would like to continue down this path and just grow organically.

I’m all about organic growth, I think it serves the artists best. Another non sequitur, but I really want your perspective. How do you feel about the expanding space for black artists and black music right now? Does it inspire you to witness and participate in the shifting of people’s perception of what Black music is? 

I love that the perception is changing surrounding the expanding space for black artists. And the reason I say perception is because, to me, black artists created many if not all of the genres many other artists take credit for so this was ours to begin with! It absolutely inspires me because while marketing is important and influences so much, I think social media has given black artists back the power to create space for whatever we want to do. We can create our own lanes. 

We absolutely can. Personally, I think TikTok has been a great platform to bring greater visibility to Black alternative artists. Would you agree it’s more instrumental to this than other platforms? 

I would say yes! All of the algorithms have their bias (we know this for sure) but the main thing I like about tiktok’s algorithm is that it seems to really tailor itself to its specific audience and as a result, we can uplift our own people more. I love that.

For sure. I love the music community, seeing artists’ creativity and the way people engage each other on topics there. So…here’s a prompt for you. What are two of your favorite albums that you consider polar opposites?

This is such a good and hard question haha. I’d say The Beauty In Distortion by J*Davey and Homogenic by Bjork. The reason I say this is because while both albums are beat-centric and make use of distortion at times, the end result was so different. Another pairing imma list is Girl In The Half Pearl by Liv.e and Strange Mercy by St. Vincent. I love these albums and both have a melancholic vibe but in different ways. The music nerd in me wants to point out how both of them are from Dallas, Tx haha.

I still haven’t listened to Liv.e. I keep hearing she is amazing, I really need to get it together. So with artists releasing singles and really taking their time to release a full album now, I have to ask - especially younger artists - what do you prefer more, full albums or singles/playlists?

I love full albums to the core. I love the concept of bringing to life a whole project with such an intention and tying something together like that. And the way an entire album can become like a capsule of a certain time over a collection of songs as opposed to one. The rollout, the aesthetic, the concept/theme, the sonic choices that tie everything together is just the most satisfying thing. And to experience it the way the artist intended. I love it. (Singles/playlists are great too tho! haha)

I agree so much. I love it. I accept other answers, but I love this answer.

Your content is really fun to watch because you’re wholesome yet so confident! I can tell you really love guitar and the process of constructing songs. Do you draw a distinction between the songwriting process and production or are the lines more blurry? 

Thank you, haha. It took and is still taking a long way to exude confidence in it so I appreciate that. I would say it's more blurry for me because I tend to do both interchangeably. When I write it's not just about the song structure and content but I usually also have an idea of how I want it to sound once it's clearly conceptualized in my head and I'm trying to get it out and recorded. So for example, I might write a lyric and a melody but I also hear that it HAS to have this kind of delay on it or it doesn't feel complete haha. If that makes sense.

It makes perfect sense. That’s part of why I think the recorded medium really adds to the experience of songwriting. You have that control, but a responsibility not to exhaust yourself or exhaust the song. Do you believe in the concept of a magnum opus? Do you think people can strive for it or do you think it just happens?  

I think it’s subjective. But in the case of it happening, I tend to believe it just happens, and the best way it happens is when an artist has grown into themselves and found a sound that is THEM. I’ve thought about this in terms of when an artist self-titles an album. They believed after however many projects they previously put out that this one embodied THEM fully. Yet, that could still not be the album of theirs that is considered magnum opus to listeners haha.  

Haha, true! True. When I was a kid a self-titled album used to really bother me and I think maybe that had something to do with why but I never articulated it. Or I just thought they were lazy. I don’t know. 

So here’s a wild card question. Do you believe in reincarnation? 

Yes. Energy just recycles and we are energetic beings having a human experience.

Me too. I really hope next time I get to be something other than human. How much do you feel like you infuse your life philosophies into your songwriting? 

A lot haha. I’m very interested in the metaphysical and spiritual. And it’s just natural to sneak in those existential concepts when that’s what all of this is haha. Art and creation fragment themselves and are imitating and experiencing themselves. Ourselves!

I’m definitely a sucker for artists who do this, probably because I vibe with it pretty deep myself. So What’s on deck in 2023 for Kam Theory? What are you looking forward to? What can your new fans look forward to?  

I definitely have goals in mind for this year musically but they are also dependent on my personal life goals at the moment haha. I definitely will just be taking opportunities as they present themselves and making more of them. But if all goes well I'll be performing more and collaborating more, and I'll finally release a project as opposed to just singles. Let's hope for and manifest the best! :)

WE HERE HOPE FOR AND MANIFEST THE BEST FOR KAM THEORY <3

(Originally published on beastsunltd.com March 8th, 2023)

[natalieglick]

Week 2- Post #2

This blog post is about my experience trying to spend less time on social media and more time being more productive with my day.

For a generation extremely attacted to social media, this experiment of trying to go a day without social media is not easy. I also decided that I would take the day to myself and not make any plans so it would be easier to not be on my phone as much.

I work monday through friday 9-5 at a daycare. So of course when I am working I am rarely on my phone anyways and able to check it as frequently. I am guilty of doing it but today I focused on spending my time playing with the kids rather than just watching them to keep myself distracted.

However, the kids at daycare have nap time between 12 and 2. Which means that give me 2 hours to sit on my phone, text friends and scroll through social media. Normally on my break I will sit in my car and watch youtube as well.

However, trying to go 24 hours without using social media I thought naptime for the kids would be the perfect quiet time to read a book. So for the first time ever, I brought a book to read at work. I read for the whole 2 hours until kids started waking up. Rather than going to my car to eat lunch so I can watch YouTube as I would on any other day, I decided to take it inside and continue reading.

What I learned from this is I throughly enjoyed reading during this two hour time period rather than social through the same social media apps over and over again and honesly becoming bored. I want to continue reading at work and I am loving the series that I am reading so I think that will be rather easy.

After work I will go home and have dinner with my family if I am not seeing friends after work. Since I was having a day to myself, I went straight home after work. Normally we will go downstairs and watch television while we eat. Rather than doing that I proposed that we eat dinner and the table instead. My parents of course agreed and I will really nice to sit and talk while we ate and I catched them up about how work has been at the daycare rather than sitting in silence watching TV.

After dinner, I decided it would be the perfect day to sit down and work on my summer classes and have a productive evening. It felt nice to get most of my work out of the way rather than waiting till last minute like I normally do. Mostly waiting till last minute because of social media usage.

Once it was time for bed, I decided that I would keep reading my book as a reward for being productive. Normally I would spend the last few hours of my night on YouTube or TikTok but not today. I felt myself getting tired as I was reading, turned my lights off and went right to bed.

What I have learned for this experience is it is nice not feeling so attached to social media. It is extremely convent to use and a dark hole that sucks you in. I want to continue spending more time enjoying life not through a phone screen. I promise, whatever you are missing, missing out on life is more important than social media.

[cinematricksbooksins]

Toxic Mean Girl Gatekeepers

I like TikTok as much as the next person. I won't lie when I say I also enjoy Booktok from time to time. While I haven't found the greatest of recommendations on there, I have found some fun mindless reads off an on. When I first started watching Booktok videos and lives, I thought it was a nice community. Don't get me wrong, there are some genuine and nice people on there. However, in more recent weeks I have seen nothing but toxic, hateful, mean girls attitude, and gatekeeping mindset within all of the drama. It almost feels unwelcoming in certain aspects.

I've seen booktokers belittle and make mocking videos over people of certain genders just getting into reading and wanting to share their journey. Mostly it's because these individuals get more views and followers in two videos than these seasoned booktokers have. It's not the posters fault, so why bully and gatekeep reading or even making book related content? At least they're reading! Books and reading should never be gatekept.

Another thing I've seen is readers and authors going after each other. Leave each other alone. If a reader didn't like your story or doesn't want to read your work it's not personal. They have their own tastes. For readers, authors can't win with them when it comes to certain topics or they've been belittled and bullied for asking people to leave any critiques and reviews of their books.

Don't even get me started on the lives. Like I said, there are plenty of nice and welcoming booktok lives. However, one I've seen for almost a year now has moved from being welcoming to having horrible toxic mean girl energy. They don't get many views. Normally their audience is 3-12 people. They used to engage with people like crazy in the comments. However, in more recent months, unless you have the followers to go live with them...they won't engage with you. It doesn't matter if you are a reader, author, or writer. No huge following...no engagement. This was sad for me. I used to engage with them, but now they won't even talk to me because I don't have the viewers. I'm not the only they've done this too either. People who have been here for over a year, supported them, engaged with them, are just cut off and ignored simply because of a follower count and lack of videos. Another issue is they claim to not want drama and to stand up for their indie authors and friends, but i have seen the cattiness between them or others that come on. I've seen the backhanded comments about authors they "refuse" to name and how they persuade each other to remove books and not buy books from people they deem "horrible". Yet, they refuse to say what the author did or who the author is. They've even texted about people in the live chat while on the live and laughed about it. I don't know, it comes across as very mean girl energy.

I don't know. Just a few things have been bothering me recently with seeing the toxic side of booktok for once. I'm not one to post. I barely have any videos up on my page as is because I'm just not one for content creating. Regardless, I thought about posting books I've been enjoying or books I bought that I can't wait to get to, but now...I just don't think I want to. I'd rather keep it to myself and not share than have a bombardment of bullies, mean girls, and gatekeepers. I get every clique on the app has these mentalities, but I've just been flooded with Booktok specifically recently and it makes me sad. Just when books were becoming popular again, it seems like its starting to die off because of all the drama. What are your thoughts on booktok? Has it become more toxic over the years?

[madfantasy]

I haven't seen you post in a while, I hope you've been doing okay? How is everything? Hope it's been a good year so far for you 💕💕

You're too kind, u & everyone who made inquiries, bless ur hearts.. im sorry for disappearing, but yeah, I don't have net— using my phone credit and hope this posts..

I tried to record my voice answering this, like I sometimes did on tik, suddenly ended up trying to muffle the floods of my burning tears, so now I have an awkward vid of me talking then weeping out of nowhere, which a good reason for me to keep up the no cry habit, heh.. but seriously, I suppose I'm fine till I be conscious of it.. its much easier for not to talk .. even tho I'm aching to be back in thy company, lonely in my foresight to catch on to the present that joins us, hand held out to reach like minded souls but shying from the fear of forgetfulness occurring..

I'm fine tho, did few new stuff, merely drowning in too muchness and nothingness as usual, this month I guess you could say I took an act of mad fury in search of any happy source because the echoing silence and the swarm of sadness nipping on my brain cells thickened, and the reasoning merged with the obscene. So instead of giving my guardians the usual of 3/4 of my earnings last month for net and groceries, I spent it all. Ya know, as it was told to me it mine to do as I please? As being prevented any chance of work if it was possible, 't was supposed to be spent on art supplies & measly delights craved for years ?

Before hand, I've been begging them to take me for months to get any clothing or whatever, be it the first time I ever see a shop, then just to drive around, then just me peaking to the outside when the front door is open, merely seeking change I suppose. They kept vaguely promising me until they refused point blank— getting tired of my nagging, then their car just stopped working till this day. Its in the workshop rn..

Anyway, befouled by despair, needing the mere basics of life and not granted, I was delighted when i found a site to buy from cheap & pretty, I pressed buy without any further considerations, or taking their permission and thrilled to be able get gifts for my siblings too. I say gifts but really they are deprived necessities too and not even much just one each cuz well, they are 5 of my babies and to start with the top of priorities; we all draw

I could already see it, they can't help themselves; heck seeped through the clenched gates of their mouths, trying desperately to poison me with undirect attempts this time, cuz I bought for my sibs they're out of the option of calling me selfish. I was upping the same trance like state of vague existence dealing with them, absorbing their insults and degrading just to make sure my shi arrives safe.

Unfortunate for me, the site chose the worst carrier in this country

I did everything in my power to make it into their convenience, by embarrassingly messaging the carrier daily, they took a week of promising to deliver and flanking so my guardians reached a heated level of threatening, waving their hands nd almost tossing shi at mE saying that they don't care if they came and if i dared to order something again they'll do this and that. Not allowing me to open the door for the delivery guy when he comes, blaming me for missing vaccination dates (they kept missing them even before)& missing going to important places(again, they just didn't go to for ages), made them loose sleep, etc etc— in turn, I seen red and regretfully blew up.

I screamed at them its literally the only time I ever did this, it BECAUSE it easier on them & I'll do what I want whatever anyway, & to stop interrupting me while I try to explain things , then they suddnly back done and be like I'm not mad at u I'm mad at the delivery ppl, that they are proud of me for being able to do all this, and such sort. I left them to cool in my room, Idk how I did it but must have slam-gripped something so hard it chipped most of my short nails & cracked one, was glad I didn't hurt my drawing hand but yeah, goofy mani

They robbed me of the joy of anticipation & the dissipation of apathy, I started to lose sleep again and my liberating dreams left me and I don't think I remember leaving bed.

But still, If not force myself to do things.. there'll be nothing for me if I don't.. at least I know im able of that

I got my guardians happy tho after another tiresome refusal, by trying out one of those Uber-eat like local apps here, since they have no car and being disabled & ill, I ordered McDonald's for the first time. Slythry behind their backs per habit, told them someone coming and they had that look again, but thankfully the guy came through and didn't steal my money, heh. For a big 1800 calories meal I suppose it was passable, the happy fam faces I got was the real treat..

Oh with that thing with the credit card stating I owe them money, waited weeks & nobody got back to us? They started taking from my guardian's account directly to pay it, saying oh we did send you warnings--- TO THE SHADOWY LINES OF THEIR POSTERIOR A.K.A NOWHERE. Thankfully the account is mostly empty nd just for random transactions, i alerted my guardians not to use it. And again, my god, another round of endless calls and promises started, and we wait again so they just don't act as if we owe them a frking 17k dollars that we don't have.. was panicking cuz I have nothing and but my guardians were weirdly comforting about it and told me not to worry

One thing good bout no net is it made me stop thinking about life in general, and stop the tiny unnoticeable prick of misery when I have no input to share, trying not to helplessly compare people just living, in inflated style or not, in media, to my isolated-most-of-my-life style and missing much of that organic "life experiences and chances", heh. At least, my situation would be favorable to me if it was ever possible for it to let me have peace, or have the simple knowledge I'm not virtually imprisoned and have never familiarised with nothing of this world but the surrounding walls.. its nice to have more time to be consumed by muse and day dreaming that flutters life through my dull being and sing chorus of inspiring means for art to flow and finds its way delicately onto my realised canvas.. but no, I continued drawing whilst sight blurred with salty droplets contradicting that happy tintin dance on tiktok I worked so long on just cuz I couldn't stop, not the tears or the mad scribbles of determined intention to visualise the mourned excitement I need, hating everything I make

Somehow the lilac dream still intrudes, visualising me friends, living, in a quaint home, maybe we roommate, arm in arm we go to make every fracture of fate's encounters a disgusting adventurous thrill, like building a maze of cardboard or chasing each other in the dark.. maybe getting that half bleached head and endless ear pericings ... then it dies and I totally forget it..

But what those awesome headphones helped me do, literally blocks all their voices listening to Sev losing it and I can Waltz around not feeling gutted to go and interfere or play the referee each time. But I can't wear them forever, gives me a bad headache, and honestly; I can't be too neglectful.. my sibs hates me for it already hehe

At least these clothing came true to their measurements, felt the new sensations on how everything I wore hugs me & learnt the baffling ways on how "gender" and region plays different tunes on the same measurements. Getting fitting things felt like suddenly there's hope to be, for myself to be me, and ease this severe disassociation between who I am, and what my body is .. from how little I see myself nd consider it worthy of anything because of how long it been living like a phantom among people.. to numb this dysphoria until it be gone one day

Saddened that the only site I can't order from again if they keep using that awful carrier

...

I missed our country's 91 national day, too. They made sales everything 91 riyal so.. but knowing the sellers here, I don't think most of em went true with their offers.. Horrible news tho on the celebrations, sigh

I turned this into a dear diary, guess bothered you enough today, sorry

So thankful to yous, Idk if I can be back, but I'll remain creating, and will keep the thought alive of being tickled when sharing my creations with your viewing pleasure somehow

'till then my precious dears, take care 💛🙏

26.9.2021, 8 pm, sleeping

[softluci]

hello yes can i just say i l o v e d your gen z hcs and may i acquire more

for starters, i am not religious, but i am PRAYING you don’t think i was ignoring your ask. i’ve been thinking about it since i got it, it’s just that i’m a college student with worms for brains, so hopefully you understand. this is something that i’ve had on my mind for a long time [i’ve been at this on and off for months], and it most definitely can be associated with/attributed to gen z. 

for a fleeting, wonderful period of time, there was a trend on tiktok that went, “buss it, buss it…” are you familiar? 

that should be enough of a summary, right? ah—for future reference, “o7” is like a saluting emote, for anyone who might not know. reader is g/n as usual, enjoy!

[a/n: so because this is so long, this part is going to be, like, the lore, and then the actual headcanons will be right here]

trendy 

the two things most corrosive to the human spirit are easily named—capitalism and boredom. while it would be easier and less taxing to explain the former, the latter was the problem at hand. it’s not that there was nothing to do in the devildom—quite the opposite, actually—it was just that you wanted some time to yourself every now and again. the trouble with trying to take time for yourself in a completely new location, the residents of which are always enamored with you in one way or another, is that there isn’t anything to do. the house was full of adventures for you to take—the trap door under the rug in the library, the other trap door under the dining room table, the small door behind the couch in the living room, and whatever other poorly hidden doors your seven roommates thought you didn’t know about. 

trouble was, you didn’t want to leave your room. you, intelligent creature that you are, knew that the chances of you running into mammon or satan or beel or asmo were all too high, and even higher were the chances of you agreeing to spend time with them if they asked, and you knew they would. what were you to do? 

you stared at your ceiling from your bed, d.d.d. resting on your stomach as you let your mind wander. your d.d.d. was full of things for you to do, the devildom’s ethernet at your fingertips, but you weren’t interested in finding new things right now. you wanted something familiar, like—like your phone. 

what was the point of lucifer taking your phone, anyway? it’s not like you could use it—being here rendered it a useless brick of glass and metal, so it wouldn’t have been a big deal if you still had it. it was funny, though, that you couldn’t use your actual phone when it was still possible to access the human internet from down here. 

at least, you assumed so. 

how else would levi be able to keep up with his human idols, get tickets for their shows—the works, you know? luckily, you were fully capable of asking. 

d.d.d. now in your hand, you rolled onto your stomach and found your messages with levi, nails clacking against the glass as you tried to reach him.

hey, you texted, can you help me with something?

his reply came faster than you expected: ?? what do you need 

how do i access human websites and apps, you asked, rolling onto your side. you know how to, right?

lololol, it’s not possible :p

a grunt, more aggravated than you’d care to admit, escaped from the back of your throat.

don’t lie. 

a few minutes passed with no response, and you wondered if you were too harsh. 

“he’s a sensitive guy,” you mumbled, inhaling deeply. “i probably came on too strong or something.” 

just as you started typing out an apology and a, “forget i ever said anything,” you got a response. 

a vpn and a proxy site. 

a smile crept onto your face as air came out of your nose, the closest thing to a laugh you could muster. 

can you set it up for me? 

after another few minutes of no response, you sit up, wondering how you could’ve possibly fucked up a second time, your d.d.d. buzzed. 

levi sent you a file and a link, with a host of instructions. 

click on the file and it’ll take you to the vpn you need to download. don’t worry about bugs or anything, i made it myself. 

you let out a low whistle, flopping onto your back once more. 

“this guy gets up to more than i thought,” you said, eyebrows raised. “someone get this man some physical affection.” 

you continued to read, growing more fond of him with each sentence.

once you install it, pick the country whose network you want access to. from there, you’ll have a list of that country’s most used applications available for you. again, don’t worry about bugs. 

what’s the link for? you asked, excitement getting the better of you. 

for when you download internet applications. it’s added security, paste the link in before you search anything or you’ll trigger the firewall alarm. 

you blinked. 

you’ll trigger the what? 

i’ll trigger the fucking What? 

levi’s response was the fastest one yet: the Fucking Firewall Alarm. barbatos’ design. he has no idea i know how to bypass it. just do what i said. don’t try to solve any potential issues on your own, come to me for everything.

roger that o7, you replied, thanks levi ^_^

yeah, yeah. come to my room for a hxh binge tomorrow night.

you snorted. what a fucking nerd—in the greatest way possible. 

of course bestie :] ily

ily2 normie -_- 

in his room, unbeknownst to you, levi felt like he made a mistake of some kind. it’s not that he didn’t trust you, it’s just that you had a tendency to end up in undesirable situations, even if it wasn’t always on purpose. he was probably just worried over nothing, or so he tried to tell himself, but whatever. this isn’t even about him.

you sat up once more, this time leaning against your pillows as you started setting everything up. everything went so quickly that you barely wondered if all of this—subverting hell’s firewall, personally designed by a man eerily similar to a 2D crush from when you were in middle school—was worth accessing a few silly apps from the human world. 

a few minutes later, your d.d.d. now a much, much cooler copy of your phone, any and all thoughts of regret and hesitation were absent from your mind. 

your first order of business on your upgraded d.d.d. was logging into your tiktok account, however surprising it was that you even remembered the password. you put your headphones in and adjusted your volume, going back into the dumpster fire that is your for-you page with open arms. 

after around half an hour of stifled laughter and small, offended gasps from being targeted by the algorithm, you came across a rare dancing video. the person on your screen was in casual clothes, making minor, silly dance movements as the music dwindled, only for them to drop into a squat in time with the music, suddenly dolled up. you shot forward, taken aback by their transformation and by their dancing post beat drop. did you watch it on a loop for a few minutes? well, that’s nobody’s business but yours. you clicked on the sound in hopes of finding similar videos, and much to your relief, there were plenty. about ten videos in, a smile still on your face, you got an idea. 

you slipped your headphones out, arbitrarily looking around your room, before whispering to yourself, “i could—i could do that. i could totally do that.” 

and you were right. you had nice clothes and makeup from various shopping occasions with asmo. your room had led strips, courtesy of levi ordering the wrong ones and being so kind as to give them to you. you could do it. 

levi was the only person you’d spoken to since you retreated to your room a few hours ago, and the lights have been off the entire time, which meant that if you worked quietly enough, everyone else had reason enough to assume you were asleep. good! how could you possibly explain what you were doing getting all dolled up at, like, 11:00 on a wednesday night? you couldn’t, even a little bit—not in a way that convinced anyone, anyway. 

come midnight, you were sitting cross legged on your bed, watching your final product. not to be vain or anything, but you were looking very respectfully at yourself. since when could you move like that, anyway? the wonders of being alone, you supposed. 

you didn’t post it publicly, electing to save it as a draft just so it would save to your d.d.d. maybe you’d post it once you were back in the human world, when your friends wouldn’t swarm your comments asking where the fuck you were. 

yeah, lucifer told you, “everything was taken care of,” but regardless of whether or not you believed him, you knew it wasn’t a good idea to risk finding out if he missed something. 

boredom creeping up on you again, you elected to go through the messages on your d.d.d. it would be better to make yourself laugh before you were fully bored again, right? you stood up and stretched, opening the group text with the adults. luke doesn’t know about it; he thinks the one with everyone is the main one, and everyone lets him think that so he feels included. 

walking around your room in small circles, you scrolled up to the older conversations and read through them, rolling your eyes and chuckling to yourself. very rarely did they talk about anything of importance. it was mostly diavolo, barbatos, and simeon making quips and jokes at lucifer’s expense for everyone to see. it was gold in its purest form. 

you contemplated sending one of the many cursed things sitting in your camera roll, just to keep them on their toes, but just after opening your gallery, you resigned not to, figuring it would be best to leave him alone. 

you stretched again, the hold on your d.d.d. a bit looser this time. it nearly slipped out of your hands, but you caught it, tossing it onto your bed. as soon as you resigned to start getting ready for bed, you turned back around and picked it up. 

there was no rhyme or reason to your actions; if someone in that moment were to ask you why you did it, you would’ve said, “just ‘cause.”

human intuition is a wonderful thing.

your d.d.d. was still on, still open to the group chat. you’d sent something, evidently a second ago, as indicated by the time stamp. the thumbnail was of you, in casual clothing—the casual clothing you were wearing before you got dolled up, actually. huh. 

huh. 

the weight of your mistake came crashing down on you in full force, a chill sinking into your skin and running up your spine.

you were suddenly acutely aware of the concept of time, how it was of the essence and you had absolutely none to waste.

what were you to do? it wouldn’t be long before your favorite person saw it. you had to do something. 

you could say nothing. you could tell the truth and say it was an accident and that you were embarrassed, but that was even worse than saying nothing because it meant you were set to be the target of teasing you didn’t even wanna try to imagine. you could say it was an accident and be confident about it, telling them, “enjoy!” but that was a dangerous game to play, and you knew it. 

well, i do admire you for taking time to think, but, unfortunately, there was a checkmark next to your message. oh, a number as well—eleven. you just can’t catch a break. what were they all doing up at this time, anyway? it was a school night🤨. 

[daomaikeng]

cue emotional post!

uhhhh henloe! making this post has me on the verge of tears so please bear with me.

if you think i’m making this post as my version of “emotional otb admin who confesses their undying love for other admins”, then you’re absolutely right.

can i start by saying, i love you all???? now that you know that fact, let’s go ahead. i have never celebrated pride before. it was joining the 1d fandom that led me to explore different identities, that confirmed that i wasn’t a cishet girl. the fandom gave me the courage to ask myself questions, and find answers to them. it gave me courage to change my name, my labels, my pronouns, as i kept on learning more about myself. it introduced me to the queer community, something i had never been exposed to before. i have to thank louis for this. becoming his fan has changed my life. when OTB released, it felt like my “oh” moment. though it took me months after that to actually come out, the song gave me the push i required. which is why, i was overjoyed when i got the opportunity to work on this project.

we had a shit-ton of setbacks, leading to tears and frustration and angry keysmashes. huge UAs that could have changed the course of the project refused to respond to us. twitter was the absolute worst. they thought we were trying to push the attention away from Project KMM, when in reality KMM had died before it even began. before we even began. many people didn’t even know there was a project for OTB. personally for me, it was the worst month of my life. my life was once again torn apart.

through all of this, though, this project was the thing that kept me alive. it gave me a reason to power through the worst of days. it gave me a reason to ignore everything else going wrong in my life and focus. it gave me a reason to not scream when my mother laughed at homophobic jokes, because i knew i had to stay alive for this project.

the friends i made in this time feel more like my family now, instead of my biological one. so this is a post for all of you.

@dyingstars-x : seven!! they came up with the original idea. i don’t know what queer louie spirit possessed you, but i’m so so so glad you decided to post this. that one post had my mind dancing in circles and bursting with ideas. they have been the best parent to all of us, looking over everything, coming up with concepts in a few hours’ time, keeping us sane. idek how to put it into words but mostly- seven’s contribution has been priceless.

@saintqueer : JORDANNNNNNNN!! while all the admins have been working super hard and being amazing, hear me out- jordan is the backbone of this project. she reached out to seven, and within just a few hours of us confirming the project, they got to work!! their twitter talents are unmatched, trust me. she’s been so good at dealing with the UA drama; i truly could never. they also made tiktoks!! i want to say so much but i can’t formulate my thoughts. but you should all hail jordan. they just make me go dshfdkjfkdjhskfndk

@rainboww-paradise : mimi! despite her busy schedule she took out so much time to brainstorm with us in the first few days. (we literally said hi to each other and started brainstorming for themes it was a Mess). she kept on making time to make amazing graphics, and share gorgeous ideas, as well as being a person you can always rely on for motivation.

@thosefookinavacados : A!! they made all the wonderful playlists you can use, as well as handling the drabble fest with me. we were both diving into it with no idea of what to do, but we figured it out together. they’ve been the most hilarious companion in this.

@herefortommo : emma!! she gave you the streaming updates every day, as well as making those uquizzes???? it was really fucking hard, i don’t know how they managed to come up with so much. they always shared tumblr asks and all the nice comments you left on our uquizzes, and it was so much fun to read them. she also figured out how to use shazam and tiktok and deezer 😭

@1dwoodchuck : nicky!! she handled twitter most of the time, and she was SO good at it. like, seriously. she found out more about the UEFA league and kept coming up with creative ideas for tweets. she kept talking to UAs and roped most of them in to help us ✨✨

@fishandfrog and @secretheartmp3 who both helped us a lot at the start, even though they were busy afterwards 💕

honourable mentions to @staff for including us, UnitedByPop for writing an article about us, promoting it so many times, and including it in their monthly round-up. they did so much for us. also!!!! i was looking forward to this- a huge huge thank you to @dailytomlinson , especially cristal @ltyear for helping us when literally no one would. they’ve boosted our posts so many times and supported us, and it means a lot. you’re now my favourite UA. mwah.

special thanks to @thetriangletattoo , flo, who was basically part of the team without being a part of the team. she was so so so supportive of us, making gorgeous art, and giving us permission to share it on that bird app! they always used their twitter account to use our hashtags and boost our tweets. we always shared those tweets in the server, and every time we confessed our undying love for her. they were even featured in the staff post, and that’s huge! she was literally the sweetest angel ever, and we love them a lot ✨ (ps they also introduced the found family trope to this project, so yes flo, now you are my family)

lastly, a huge thank you to all the content creators of this fandom, whether you made fanart or gifs or graphics or wrote a fic. this was all made for you. sharing love and kindness is what fandom is about, and i hope this month highlighted that. this fandom has become my home, and i’m so happy that i get to share it with you wonderful people. thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for taking part, giving this project your time, and making this happen. thank you to everyone else who participated, whether it was boosting tweets or streaming or simply reblogging posts. your contribution is priceless.

thank you.

love, rae

[whump-town]

Give us a survival guide for college for students with ADHD!! All the ones I’ve seen are soooo neurotypical centered, like “study! Just sit down and get it done, no matter how hard it is!” Like guys I physically cannot do that sometimes. And so since you have ADHD and you are a college student, I was wondering if you could try and make a guide to Neurodivergent students. Just what works for you. -🍋

I’m hardly surviving it but I suppose I can tell you some of the things that I do. 

Timers can be your best friend. I don’t just mean like alarm clocks. I have an iPhone and, if you don’t already know, you can go into the settings and make it so you can only be on certain apps for a certain amount of time every day. I have mine set for Tiktok because I get sucked into the simplicity and mindlessness of the flicking. We all have vices, that’s mine. I allow myself two hours every day (which is lowkey a lot) but with that self-imposed time set in, I rarely use the whole two hours. 

If I need to do something I hide my phone from myself. Trust me, the first few times you’ll be hyperaware of any buzzes but whatever notification is coming through is rarely (and I mean never) as important as what you’re doing. I don’t mean just “out of sight, out of mind”. I stick it sock drawer so it’s muffled by the socks, deep in a desk drawer, or behind my pillows on my bed. I’ll forget about it and then I won’t stop and mess with it. 

Planners. I’m an asshole. I’ll readily admit to that. So, naturally, I thought fuck planners I’m not a kindergartener I don’t need some fucking calendar to tell me what to do. WRONG. Don’t be an asshole just use the fucking planners. I put all of my assignments in it. I used to keep little boxes by them so you get a little “reward” checking it off. However, I’m destructive so I will sit there and scratch it out. Plus, it allows a little guilt-trip for each assignment you don’t complete. I’ve found this process to be highly efficient because at the end of the day/week I look at this page with all kinds of things scratched out and I feel proud. You can see that you did things. 

It’s okay for your dorm/apartment to be your optimal learning space. Think about it: you can do anything you want in there. So, duh, that’s a nice spot but you’re going to get tired of being in there. You’ll get pinned up and frustrated (at least, I do). 

There are no correct places to want to study. We have two libraries on my campus and I find one disgusting. I hate being in there. The whole thing floor is open and seeing all those people just walking around makes me super anxious and I can’t do anything. What I’m saying is: explore. There’s a building with a little sitting area in it that I love to go to. It’s mostly frequented by staff and there’s a coffee shop just down the hall. It’s got foot traffic but just the right amount, if that makes sense?

YOU’RE GOING TO FORGET THINGS: I put things that are important to remember on sticky notes and place them everywhere. Eventually, sure, you’re going to start skating over them. Object permanence and whatever the opposite is-- when you see something too many times, you know, but if you put up enough of them and if you make them noticeable you might remember. That being said I typically also place these things in my planner

For the senses: I like to sit with just a lamp on. I turn off all the other lights and just use a lamp. It kinds of tunnels my vision and I don’t get distracted by my unmade bed or the crooked carpet. I listen to a lot of classical music while working. I also use a variety of types of methods to get that sound. Earbuds that go in your ear and those circle ones that go over. It’ll hurt if you listen for too long and I can go for hours

Get a person. You can have tons or just one (i have one) and she always asks about food. I forget. I will go all day without eating and not think anything of it. She always asks. Sometimes she’s a little late and it’s dinner but she remembers and I don't and that’s what’s important 

Get a water bottle and find some way to trick yourself into drinking water. I’m very simple, and I know that if I have a straw I will destroy a whole bottle in ten/twenty minutes without any hesitation. So, sometimes it’s okay to trick yourself

Have a few snacks handy. You can get big boxes of granola bars for rather cheap and I have those. They’ll come in handy for when you forget to eat

And, for anyone, don’t pride yourself on the ways that you allow yourself to suffer to get a grade. If no better reason then no one but you is going to commend the behavior. 

[theroguequeenaniki]

Questions 2009 -> 2021

This is from my Facebook. It popped up on my memories page thing. I originally answered this in 2009 when I was 15, it’s now 2021 & and I am 27, so I’m gonna do it again. Leaving the original answers. Original answers will be italicized. Commentary on the original answers in parentheses & crossed out? Lol. (I’m not gonna tag anyone, but, like, I guess if you want to answer these random questions from Facebook 12 years ago, go ahead lol) 

Questions

Can you fill this out without lying? You've been tagged, so now you need to answer all the questions HONESTLY. At the end, choose people to tag. Don't forget to tag me so I can see your answers! To do this, copy this entire message, then go to “notes” under tabs on your profile page, paste these instructions in the body of the note, delete my answers, and type yours. Easy! Next, tag people that you think may enjoy this (in the right hand corner of the app). Click publish (at the bottom). Have fun! :) 1.What was the last thing you put in your mouth? My cup with my Big Red in it The straw to my Kate Spade tumbler to drink my HEB Cola Lol.

2.Where was your profile picture taken? I got it off the internet. it's a random anime girl. My bedroom. 3.Can you play Guitar Hero? Never played it. Probably wouldn't be good at it. Not to good at video games. But I am good at Mario Cart, both 64 and the Wii. plus I'm good at some Sonic games. Still never played it. Idk if I’m any good at Mario Cart or the Sonic games anymore, I haven’t played either in years lol

4.Name someone who made you laugh today? Doctor Who TikTok. My cats.

5.How late did you stay up last night and why? Umm, probably about 10:00 cause it took me forevor to get into bed. Uh..Past 4am. Lol. B/c my sleep schedule is fucked. I was in bed by 3am though, but I was playing games & watching TikToks on my phone. Lol.

6.If you could move somewhere else, would you? Yes. I'd move to either New York or Sweden. I don’t know. Part of me says yes. But part of me says no..b/c even though Texas has it’s faults (a LOT of them), I cannot imagine living anywhere else long-term..

7. Ever been kissed under fireworks? HAHA. Yeah right. I've never even been kissed! Still nope. I have been kissed though. He just didn’t kiss me under the fireworks the one NYE we spent together...

8. Which of your friends lives closest to you? Um, I think R, but D might also. D is accross Stasney from me and R is a couple blocks down (I don’t talk to these people much anymore & I’m not going to share their names on Tumblr) Uh. I think Maybe Raven? B/c they’re the only one who lives in the same city still. But, Sarah might technically be closer distance wise? Hold on. Ok, yeah, Sarah’s closer, even though she doesn’t live in this city anymore.

9. Do you believe exes can be friends? It all depends on the situation.(I totally stold M's answer but it's true) (I don’t talk to this person anymore & I’m not gonna share their name on Tumblr) I mean, yeah. Two of my best friends are each others exes and they’re still friends. I haven’t stayed friend with my ex, but, uh, he ghosted me so? Lol.

10. How do you feel about Dr. Pepper? I love it. I still love it. Lol.

11. When was the last time you cried really hard? I can't remember. I don't think it was that long ago, I had a light cry on Saturday, but I don't remember the last time I cried really hard. When we got back from our trip in July. Had a full on breakdown that night. Overheated all weekend. Overwhelmed. Anxiety. It was not a very good vacation..I cry a lot though.

12. Who took your profile picture? I got it off of google. I did. 

13. Who was the last person you took a picture of? Umm, either myself, or one of my family members. Aside from myself. I think my dad, on his phone, b/c there was a cicada on his shoulder and he wanted to ask the family group chat if he could keep it. Lol. I take a LOT of pictures of cats though. Lol.

14. Was yesterday better than today? Hail yes! To much drama today! And I couldn't avoid it cause I was in the middle of it! (Oof, what drama was 15 yo Linda dealing with that she couldn’t avoid? Lol. I mean, I guess, Sophomore year was a bit full of drama lol) Anyway, I mean, they were pretty much the same. One wasn’t better than the other. One wasn’t worse than the other.

15. Can you live a day without TV? yeah. Now Music there is something I can't live without! Yep, Do it almost everyday. Sentiments about music remain the same. Lol.

16. Are you upset about anything? Yes. I'm annoyed about something and it's making me upset. (I assume this has something to do with the the drama mentioned earlier lol) Always. Anxiety & depression are a bitch. My rooms a mess & I can’t get myself to clean it. My shelves are still a mess.

17. Do you think relationships are ever really worth it? yeah. though i havent really had one yet. I mean, yeah. Even though I haven’t had one last, aside from friendships, but they’re worth it. 

18. Are you a bad influence? I hope not. If so, let me know.(again I took M's answer but it's true) Probably. Idk. Lol.

19. Night out or night in? Depends on what's going on and how I feel about it. Night in usually. I do like going out sometimes, but, like, to dinner. Maybe a movie or a show. But, you know, we’ve been in a panini press, the only thing I’ve been comfortable doing is going to dinner (fully vaxxed & masked). But I also prefer staying home anyway. (Like I usually just go to dinner with my family lol)

20. What items could you not go without during the day? my computer. my book. my journal and a pen. My phone. My journal (b/c I write in it every night, as a diary, 14yo Linda wrote stories). Uh. I didn’t take food or drinks into account in the og, so I won’t in those. But, yeah. My phone & journal. I can go a day without my laptop if I need to. (Went the whole trip in July without pulling it out, though maybe that’s not a good example since my anxiety on that trip was so high..) I want to say a book, but I’ve been in a massive reading slump so...I wish I read as much as 15yo Linda did..

21. Who was the last person you visited in the hospital? I don't remember. I think it was myself.(if you want to know, ask me in person) I honestly don’t know. I don’t remember the last time I was in a hospital. 

22. What does the last text message in your inbox say? "Mrbobbybones:  wish ted would finally meet their mother already. geez. get to it. However, I see myself in that character more and more each episode." yeah. That's what it says. It's from Twitter. (Huh? and I can’t even go check b/c my inbox doesn’t go back to 2009 on Twitter?? (I haven’t had my account that long) Wait wait wait just remembered I used to get tweets to my phone as text messages lol)

Facebook messenger: “ Cool” From our group chat. Lol.

From actual text messages on my phone: “ heeey! Just put up the Tuesday PDS just for you  it’s a big one.” From Phillip Defranco’s text line Lol.

23. How do you feel about your life right now? I'm loving and hating it. but hey nobody gets out alive right? Uh..I mean. I’m alive. I have WiFi. Food. Family. I haven’t seen my friends in 2 years. (Minus Alex, b/c they were here in July to cat/house sit, but I saw them for like, one night..) There’s a lot that could be better. A lot that could be worse. 

24. Do you hate anyone? yes!!! Oof. I mean, kinda.

25. If we were to look in your Facebook Inbox, what would we find? some random conversations. most of my convos on her though have been in chat or through comments. Facebook Inbox is now Facebook Messenger. So you’ll find all my Facebook Messenger convos. Mostly our group chat. And side group chats for secret planning (birthdays & stuff). Plus other chats? Lol.

26. Say you were given a drug test right now, would you pass? I better! (excuse me miss 15yo Linda you absolutely could have passed a drug test you ALSO didn’t drink or smoke or take any drugs lol) Yeah. Absolutely. I don’t drink or smoke or take any drugs so, yeah? Lol.

27. Has anyone ever called you perfect before? 

Yes. But I can't remember when... Yeah. Pretty sure. 

28. What song is stuck in your head? Gee by SNSD(Girls Generation) They're Korean. A few My Chemical Romance songs

29. Someone knocks on your window at 2:00 a.m., who do you want it to be? EDWARD CULLEN! Joke! lol. No I don't know. If it was Edward, I'd call the cops. whoever it is though better have an explaination or they are gonna get hit in the head with my Book of Shadows. (Maybe I wouldn’t mind Edward at my window though? Lol.) Uh. My friends? Lol. Idk if I want anyone knocking on my window at 2am.

30.Wanna have grandkids before you’re 50? I don't know....... Uh. No? Idk. Most likely not gonna happen. 

31. Name something you have to do tomorrow? I can't think of anything right now... Eat. Should probably clean my room.

32. Do you think too much or too little? Way to much! lol. Way way way too much

33. Do you smile a lot? i try to. I think I do. I get told that alot in Theater...

I think so

[melaniesartore]

I did not find it possible for me to do multiple hour long periods of time without my phone in general, so I have a few options I did for two days. 

1. Spend one hour of the day to sit down and read 

2. 30-minute sessions of no phone use 

3. 2-hour long spans of time not using a certain platform (Instagram, Snapchat, etc.) 

Method 1: 

Though normally I would have liked to read something purely for enjoyment, but I already had a book to read for my cultural management class. I found it to be all though I got more reading done than I normally do when I read this book, but I was distracted. I found myself wanting to just see if someone texted me or do a quick scroll like I normally do when I take a quick homework break. The second day reading an hour straight, I compromised with myself and played music in the background and felt it a little more enjoyable. Maybe it was because it was an assigned book and not quite one for pleasure, I was not able to become super invested and had more pull to go on my phone. I will note that like I talked about in my last post, I tend to read a lot in the summer because I have no obligations. Being here at school with everyone back on top of work and schoolwork I am more tempted to check on what others are doing than I am in summer. 

Method 2: 

This method was a bit easier to me, I simply would set a timer on my phone for thirty minutes and then put it on do not disturb. I did this 2 times the first day and 4 times the second. I mostly did it while I was doing schoolwork, but the second day I did one 30-minute session at work. Normally at work I am not super invested on my phone, but we have a loose policy on using it, so I always have the option to reach for it. Work has always been somewhat of a relaxing time because it truly is the time, I spend most away from my phone, hence why I did not really have to make myself not use it at that time. After the experiment is over and I didn’t have this timer or thought in my mind about my usage as much I noticed more when I picked up my phone. It really was for the stupidest reasons, no one had texted me or anything but I was bored with homework, so I just started scrolling. After I caught myself do that, I would just put down my phone. There was literally no reason for me to use it because nothing had to keep my attention at those moments. 

Method 3: 

This experiment was my most difficult. I did slip up a few times like I said in the last method, randomly picking up my phone to scroll and then stopping myself. It is like a reflex. So basically my 4 biggest social media outlets are messaging, TikTok, Instagram, and Snapchat. I did two a day. My first day I did messaging and snapchat, 2 hour spans of time without those apps but each at a different part of the day not at the same time. This day was the harder one, texting is my main form of communication, I get 100s of text a day, some quite unnecessary others important stuff concerning, my sorority positions, group project, friends, and family. During this time, I just tried to focus on my schoolwork and got three assignments done in 2 hours, which is pretty good. The next day was easier doing TikTok and Snapchat. I made my TikTok time limit in the middle of the day because I could not fully give up my night scroll on TikTok and then Instagram I overall do not use a lot except for those random aimless scrolls a few times a day.

Summary: 

Overall, this experiment made me realize that our generation and the ones growing up now are totally overstimulated. When I am focused, background noise does not bother me, but if I am not, it is a complete distraction. This showed through when I was reading, I hated doing it in silence in my room alone, so I had music play in the background. A lot of those random pickups have no pressing need for them, it is a reflex. I simply do not think I could go without my phone for a day, but one day I’d like to try. Or maybe even delete some apps for a few days, as adults we need to train and hold ourselves accountable for our bad habits. Yet kids are growing up learning this is normal, my younger cousin literally depends on an iPad to keep her entertained. I hope that as we see this advancement in technology, we start to learn about factual side effects and downfalls of it, as the ones I have found in myself, and learn how to deal better with them because technology will only ever keep improving.

[daredevilexchange]

Want to be featured here? Head to this page and fill in the form!

See what this is about here, or if you’re using the app here.

What’s your fannish ID? MarvelGaynessToTheMax I was still in middle school when I made it so I’m not really sure what was going through my head when I made it lol. 

What types of fanworks do you create? I make funny little text posts and at times I’ll post edits I make. I want to write fanfiction, in fact I have one that’s about 77 pages in a Google doc but I’m not sure if it’s worth posting or not haha…

What are your favourite types of fanworks, when you’re not creating? I love fanart and edits a lot, fanfics too.

What do you like in particular about this fandom? I love the characters, ships, and honestly just the mood of the fanfiction. Every fanfic I’ve read with Frank and Matt has given off almost a homey feel! Plus, all of the fanfiction I’ve read before are very well written. 

Do you like participating in fan events? I like posting mini posts on fratt week! But I’m not very good at sticking to a consistent schedule haha- 

What about your creating process? I have adhd (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder), and to put it simply my brain never stops running. My brain is literally wired differently than other peoples because of it! Now, people with adhd do something call “hyperfixating” which is where we get really interested in a topic, like REALLY interested!! We can get stuck in a hyperfixating loop for years on end before our brains stop. So, to put it simply, I literally cannot stop thinking about Frank and Matt. Not even for a little bit. Why? Because my brain does “oh, this topic gives us lots of dopamine! Let’s just keep thinking about it then since it makes us really happy.” When I go to bed, my brain cannot shut off on its own, I need to either work until I reach a point of total exhaustion, or medication. I will often times lay in bed and stare at my ceiling, and when all you have is Frank x Matt going through your head, it becomes pretty easy to come up with different scenarios. Sorry if this was too long or annoying, my adhd also makes it hard to stop talking because my brain is constantly running.

Do you interact a lot with other fans? I know a few people, but I’ve never actually gotten to know them at all which kinda sucks… Nobody irl really bothers to listen to me when I talk about Frank and Matt, even though it’s super hard not to when I get all happy and giddy about them without really meaning to. And I have no filter… However when people like my posts it makes me happy too, and it’s not because the post is simply growing in popularity! It’s because I know other people out there are reading my posts and enjoying them. Maybe not as much as me, because my brain works differently, but it’s still nice because nobody else does for me.

Do you have other fandoms you’d like to talk about? I’m in BNHA, DemonSlayer, Spideypool (although it’s been a while), fairtytail and uhhhh it’s getting really hard to think of others because all I can think about is Frank and Matt when it comes to liking things haha

Is there anything else you want to tell us about yourself? Other than I have adhd? Well I’m trans, (female to male) and I go by he/him pronouns. I have tiktok and a yt channel that is hard around BNHA. I do asmrs that have surprisingly grown in popularity even though I haven’t done any videos in while because I can find motivation to talk about BNHA when all I can think about is Frank and Matt lol. Oh! And I’m in high school, taking courses to become an EMT! I could go on for hours here so I’m just gonna stop myself now.

Where can your fanworks be found? Maybe a few on my yt channel, but probably not. I’m on tumblr ( text-post tag, my-edit tag) and tiktok https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMetkrBPj/ (although I post Frank and Matt stuff on my tiktok it mostly consists of my hero academia cosplays and stuff) for the most part).

Thank you, @marvelgaynesstothemax !

banner by @context-is-for-kingpins !

[ID on a white background, four black triangles that look like spotlights from above. Each illuminates one of the Defenders silhouetted in white: Jessica, Luke, Danny, Matt. A hand on the left is holding a pen writing the words Content Creator Spotlight. There is a little Punisher skull on the pen. End ID]

[purplesurveys]

1157

survey by hxcsingingsk8r

Phone Scavenger Hunt

First off, what phone do you have? I have an iPhone 8.

And what provider do you use? It’s a local one you wouldn’t know about, called Globe.

How long have you had your current phone? I can’t remember if it would be 3 or 4 years this 2021. Either way, it’s definitely been a while and I’ve been itching to upgrade. It’s too early to make such a big purchase, though.

Do you have any cases for it? Describe them. I have a clear case that I bought last year. Before that, I had a pink Otterbox case that I managed to destroy even though Otterbox is normally known for its durability. I just have a very unique ability to wreck everything I’ve ever owned lol.

How old were you when you got your first cellphone? I was technically 6, but it was meant to be a present for my 7th birthday. We threw a birthday party a month in advance because my dad had to fly back abroad for work before my actual birthday, but we wanted him to be present at the celebration so we decided throwing a party early was the best route.

What about your first smartphone? [If the answer is different] It was an iPhone 5S.

How old are you now? Dunno what this has to do with the theme of the survey but I am now 22.

Okay, move onto the scavenger hunt part

What is your lock screen picture of? It’s of Kim Seon Ho at a restaurant, lmao.

Home screen? It’s one of the shots from a recent promotional photoshoot Hayley did for Good Dye Young.

How many pictures are thre currently on your phone? This question just made me so anxious hahaha. I have way too many photos; and upon checking, it turns out I currently have 6,266. My god do I need to clean up my camera roll this weekend.

How many videos? I have 227. I have no idea it’s gotten to be this many; I barely use my phone to take videos. I’ll go ahead and delete some of them right now, just to give my phone (and its storage) space to breathe.

What is your most recent picture of? It’s a work thing...I guess I’ll explain it so it can make more sense. So one of our clients has got this Lent campaign going on, and to spread word about it we’ve tapped a handful of food bloggers to try out the offers themselves and post about their experience on social media. Now that we’re in the middle of Holy Week they’ve gone ahead and uploaded their own posts, and I’m in charge of taking screenshots so I can show to the client that the execution had been successful.

And the most recent video? It’s a private vlog. Every Sunday, or at least every other Sunday I take a few minutes to sit down and do a weekly video thing where I talk about my ~mental~ and ~emotional~ status, and it’s basically a way to be in touch with myself and keep track of my progress. Who knows, maybe I’ll actually get to uploading them one day.

Do you have any albums? If so, of what? Yeah. I have one for Cooper, one for Kimi, and a bunch of tiny albums I’ve made where I compiled 4–5 photos of friends to post on their birthdays.

What pictures have you favorited? I have a lot of favorited photos. There’s no required category for me to label them as such.

Do you have any shared albums with friends or family or work? No. I’m not sure if I can do that, or how to do it if it is allowed.

Do you have any alarms set? For what time and for what occasions? I have a bunch of alarms but only because they’re archived into the Clock app and I just haven’t gotten around to deleting them. When I was still new at my work, I used to have alarms set for certain work tasks I have to take note of every week – but now that I’ve gotten into the groove of things, I don’t need the alarms to be reminded about them anymore.

Check your weather app, what is the weather and temperature where you live? It says ‘Mostly Clear’ and shows a temperature of 26ºC.

Do you have the YouTube app? Do you have your own channel? I do have the app and my own account, but I never use it to post videos. It’s nice to have my own channel so that my homepage can be tailored to my interests.

Do you have an email app? Which one do you use? I just have the default Email app that comes with iOS, but I never use it because it’s so wonky. It doesn’t refresh new emails and it takes forever when it does, and it doesn’t always show the full thread of email conversations. If I absolutely need to check my email for something I usually have to pull out my laptop.

Does it say that there is an update available on your phone or any apps? Yes, it reminds me everyday hahaha. I don’t update unless Apple has been planning a big revamp with new features, though; and if the updates are just to address bugs, I disregard the reminders.

Go into your contacts, how many contacts do you have total? It says I have 178.

Name all of your contacts under the letter M: Feels a tad bit invasive, so I’ll just name five people I have under M: Lui, Kim, Patrice, Danika, and Andi.

Name all of your contacts under the letter U: I don’t have anyone under U.

Do you have any contacts that are businesses rather than people? Which ones? No, I don’t really use text to contact businesses. If I wanted to inquire or order from one, I usually head to their social media page.

Go into your notes, how many notes do you have saved? This is another one I have a hoarding problem with lol. My phone says I currently have 561 notes, though I’m fairly certain the biggest chunk of it comes from minutes I’ve taken down from work meetings. It was a whole lot less when I was still in school.

What kinds of things do you save in your notes? Like I said, I use Notes for taking down minutes from meetings. There are also a few surveys on there, from times I didn’t have internet and couldn’t post them on here.

Do you have any voice memos saved? What of? Yep. Some of them were recordings I had to do for journalism classes I was assigned to do voiceovers; some are interviews, also from my journ class; and the rest are of me rambling.

Do you ever use the calculator app? Pretty frequently for work.

Do you ever use the Maps app? Not really. If I needed directions, I would check out Waze for that.

Do you have any health/fitness apps? Which ones? I still have the Nike Training app from the very brief time I wanted to start working out earlier this year.

Do you have the Instacart app? The what now? I’ve never even heard of that.

What about a delivery service like Postmates, Uber Eats, Grubhub, Doordash? I have the McDelivery app for McDonald’s, but I also have other general delivery apps like Grab, Lalamove, and Transportify.

Do you have something like Venmo, Cashapp, or Paypal? I have the Paypal app but I never use it. I also have a couple of e-wallet apps just in case I’d have to use them as a payment method, since some businesses  I purchase from prefer certain ones. Ultimately, though, I use Grab’s mobile wallet the most often.

Do you use Bitmoji? I think I did before? I never used it all that regularly though. Didn’t see the point.

What other keyboards do you use besides English? Any? Filipino, Korean, and Emoji.

Which social media network apps do you have? Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Tumblr, TikTok, and Snapchat. So I guess I have all the main ones?

If you have Instagram, what is your handle and how many followers? I have a very private one I only use for work. I didn’t want it to have any followers but at present there’s Angela (because she asked to follow it this week) and Bea (idk why).

What do you typically post on the various social media platforms? The only ones I regularly post on are Twitter and Facebook, and on either I share life updates (if there are any) and memes; though on Facebook I have to watch out what kind of memes I share and make sure they aren’t too offensive because I’m friends with relatives, workmates, and media on there lmao. But on Twitter, I basically have no filter.

Do you make TikTok videos? I don’t make any myself, but I do enjoy going through the app.

Do you only add people you know on Facebook? Yes, for the most part. I’ve taken to adding people as long as they’re from UP or my high school even though I’ve never met them as well, but if I sense that they only added me to try and sell me insurance OR try to get me into MLM, then it’s an instant unfriend for me.

Do you have an app that tracks Instagram followers? No, because I don’t need to track my Instagram followers. I’m off the radar as off the radar gets.

Do you have a Snapchat? Yeah, it’s still on my phone just because but I literally never touch it anymore.

Do you ever take selfies with filters? What app's filters do you use? Eh, just before. I don’t really take selfies anymore, period.

Do you use any apps like Depop or Poshmark or Etsy? No. Out of these three I’ve only ever heard of Etsy, too.

What messengers do you use to talk to people? Any besides just texting? I have Messenger to stay in touch with family and friends; Whatsapp and Viber for work; and Telegram just in case my friends want to play games.

Do you have any photo editing apps? Which ones? I have this app called Foodie that has some pretty filters. Otherwise, since I’m not on Instagram anyway I’m never on the lookout for photo editing apps; no one ever filters their photos on Facebook and Twitter lol.

Do you have any games? Which ones? I do have a ton of games on my phone. I never play any of them, but I keep them just in case I get bored enough to start revisiting them. I have word games, drinking games, games similar to Heads Up! where one person will have to guess the word on the screen while the phone is on their forehead, and gimmicky games like 1010! and Candy Crush haha.

Do you have any rideshare apps like Lyft or Uber? I have Grab, which is a rideshare, parcel delivery, food delivery, and online grocery app all in one.

Now go to the actual phone app, whose phone numbers are saved as favorites? I don’t tag any of my contacts as favorites.

Who was your most recent outgoing call to? I can’t recognize the number, so it was probably a Transportify driver that I called to give him directions to my house.

Who was your most recent incoming call from? I also can’t recognize the number, but this time he was most likely a Grab driver.

Who was your most recent missed call from? Again, can’t recognize the number HAHAA

Why did you miss that call? On purpose? Were you sleeping? Busy? My phone is on silent 24/7, so I must have missed it while I was working.

Who is your most recent voicemail from and what's it regarding? We don’t have voicemail in the Philippines.

What was the last thing you Googled or searched on your phone? Candle tunneling and how to fix it.

What music app do you use? Apple Music? Spotify? Something else? I use Spotify, but I also availed of a 3-month trial on Apple Music earlier this year just because. I think it’s supposed to end soon but I have no plans to shift.

What playlists have you made on there? I have playlists called, “robyn discovers kpop,” “winding down,” “angst,” “not my loss,” and my personal favorite, “paramore but fuck you.”

Lastly, what is the most recent song/album you've added to your collection? What Type of X - Jessi.